Posted on 06/23/25
Message from a Doctor From Soroka Hospital
“How many times can one woman say Birkat HaGomel?” That’s what Dr. Yehudit Nachum said to me this past Shabbat.
I had come to speak to the Scanning and Recovery Unit of Division 98—the IDF unit responsible for locating and identifying the victims of October 7th—as part of a Shabbat of strengthening for bereaved families. Dr. Nachum is the wife of company commander Eliran. She had just recited Birkat HaGomel and looked familiar. I approached her, and here is the story she told me, in her own words:
“We’re from Moshav Shokeda, right next to Kibbutz Be’eri. On October 7th 2023, my husband was called up for reserve duty early in the morning, and I stayed home with our five children—the youngest just two months old. That was my first Gomel, for the birth.
“Shortly after he left, I got a phone call. I’m a doctor, and they asked me to set up a First Aid station in the moshav—people couldn’t reach Soroka Medical Center. We sent the kids to our neighbors, and under rocket fire and gunshots I ran to the shul; that’s where we had decided to establish a triage and treatment point.
“We barely had supplies—just one stretcher, a few bandages, and some IV bags. Then young people started arriving on foot—running through fields and forests after escaping the Nova festival. That’s when we began to understand the full scope of what had happened.
“By early Sunday morning, we were evacuated from the moshav. Everyone made it out safely. That was Gomel number two.
“We were evacuees. That’s where you know me from,” she told me. “We met already that Shabbat at the Neve Ilan hotel, with hundreds of other evacuees from the Gaza border area. We spent four very difficult months there—but we experienced unbelievable kindness from Am Yisrael.”
Her voice broke when she spoke about the support. “The amount of volunteering, the acts of kindness—you can’t describe it in words. Four months alone in a hotel with five kids, and we were constantly showered with love.”
“We were the first moshav to return home to the Gaza periphery. I went back to work as an OB/GYN at Soroka, and Eliran returned to reserve duty. One tour in Gaza, then the north, and two more tours in Gaza—his unit carries out the holiest missions, dealing with hundreds of fallen soldiers.
“Meanwhile, Israel has been reshaping the region: Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria—and now Iran. Then came this past Thursday. What happened at Soroka was nothing short of a miracle.
“I was about 500 meters from the missile impact site, after finishing a 26-hour shift. We had just finished moving all our patients into protected areas—literally moments before the missile struck!
“I’m not sure whether people fully grasp the magnitude of the miracle. Just the day before, the floors of the building that was hit had been cleared. Entire departments had been relocated to reinforced areas. That’s what saved lives. The missile hit a building that was completely empty. It’s unbelievable. So this Shabbat, I said Birkat HaGomel again—for the third time in less than two years.
“I feel like my life has been gifted to me over and over again. That’s why I thank Hashem every morning—for the mission I’ve been given in this world, and the responsibility to fulfill it.”
Then she showed me her necklace. For the past year and a half, she’s worn a silver pendant engraved with “Mizmor LeTodah”—Psalm 100.
“We constantly remind our children that they are privileged to say: ‘The history of the Jewish people is passing through us.’ At every stage, we must see the good and give thanks for it. Everything we go through is part of a greater plan, in which all things are ultimately turned for the good.”
Prayers of Thanksgiving
New chapters are being written in Jewish and world history. When we, the Jewish people, know who we are - the world partners with us.
Last Friday, there was a moment when I felt a shift in our collective consciousness. Rabbanit Adina Shmidman, director of the OU (Orthodox Union) Women’s Initiative, organized a Zoom session on Tehillim (Psalms), as she has done over the last year and a half. Almost 1,000 American women participated in this program. I said a few words from Jerusalem, and then Adina began to recite chapters of Tehillim from her presentation that had been set up after October 7.
Suddenly, she stopped in the middle and said: “I believe that it is time for us to change the format we have been using up until now. In addition to the chapters of salvation, I am spontaneously adding another chapter from Tehillim, 'Mizmor Le’Toda'— 'A Psalm of Thanksgiving'”.
Mere hours later, the world’s greatest superpower joined our small Jewish state in destroying evil in the world. So now I too will present this chapter of Tehillim, chapter 100.
Since October 7, we have been reciting Tehillim tearfully, from a place of pain and distress. But today we must also recite a chapter expressing our tremendous gratitude!
Wedding Season in Israel – June 2025
I’d like to share with you some of what was said at four different wedding (or wedding-related celebrations) held in Israel last week. They all say the same thing: Am ke’lavi—a nation that rises like a lion. Iranian intelligence services (if they’re still functioning) are invited to read and understand who we really are—and what we’re made of.
1.
When: Monday, June 16
Where: A small park on King George St., Tel Aviv
What: A spontaneous wedding for a couple who didn’t know until that very morning where—or even when—they’d be getting married.
Rabbi Assaf Tabachnik, head of the Rosh Yehudi community, who officiated said: “Life is pulsing right now at full force. Am Yisrael chai. But this didn’t start today. My grandparents had to move up their wedding to midday because the British imposed a curfew. My wife Tzvia and I got married on the last day of the Second Lebanon War. And now you are getting married. One day you’ll tell your grandchildren about this moment. These days prove that the soul of our nation is one—truly one. Even if we sometimes forget that in daily life. Choosing to build a home right now is a statement. It’s part of the victory picture.”
2.
From there, Rabbi Tabachnik went to a Sheva Berachot celebration for another couple—Amos Kramer and Maya Bushy—in the bomb shelter of Dizengoff Center. He had officiated their wedding the week before. He shared: “The bride, Maya, made aliyah from Australia. Her parents came to Israel for the wedding—and now cannot return home. Everyone back in Australia is worried.
“We sat there with just a guitar and some simple refreshments, celebrating Sheva Berachot in a Tel Aviv bomb shelter, when suddenly, the bride’s mother looked around and said: ‘You know? I feel good here! With everything going on and all the tension—I’m genuinely happy in a way I never felt back in Australia. I feel like I belong. I feel at home.’”
3.
Wednesday afternoon, June 18 in the Herzfeld School courtyard, Holon. The school is empty of students, and in the courtyard there is a chuppah. A few guests arrive. Rabbi Yoni Lavie speaks: “I’ve officiated at about 300 weddings and even though everything here is improvised and thrown together, this wedding is the most powerful.
“We’re in the courtyard of a closed school, with just a handful of family and friends. Most of you are hearing me now via Zoom. Four hundred people RSVP’d and yet we’re fewer than 30 in person. So those who are here—you have a responsibility: Make this the most joyful wedding you’ve ever attended!
“Two days ago, a rocket fell near the home of the couple, Geva and Shai. Their physical house was badly damaged. But the home they are building together? That remains strong. They made a courageous decision—not to delay their wedding. Material possessions come and go. But the family you’re starting today is eternal. That’s what matters.”
4.
The wedding which took place on Sunday, June 15 in broad daylight in the middle of Givat Mordechai, was that of Dana and Moshe Zakai who I wrote about last week. I described the wedding but what I didn’t share was the message the couple sent out to the small group of friends they invited that morning:
“As you know, we were supposed to get married tonight in a wedding hall in Emek Hefer. That’s not happening. But the chuppah—that will happen. Because nothing will break us. This war is a historic moment, and the weddings taking place right now are our answer to our enemies. …We’ve waited many years for this wedding. Two singles, both in our 30s. How many prayers were said for us?
“Keep praying—for us to build a faithful Jewish home. For all singles, all divorcees and widows, that they too may build homes. For the hostages—to come home. For the soldiers—to return home in peace and with victory.
For the pilots and Mossad agents who are, right now, on Iranian soil—that they return safely. And may Hashem bring all of Am Yisrael home to a rebuilt future, and complete redemption.”